An unknown novelist attempting to grow into a little-known novelist. I offer--free of charge--writing tips, anecdotes, short fiction, and assorted ramblings (with photographs and other random tid-bits thrown in for good measure)

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Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Learning to Swim Goes Live for $2.99 US

Here's the description I used for Kindle and Nook:

* * *

Hannah Sullivan is not looking to have her beliefs challenged. She is not looking to fall in love, either. Her only ambition, when she and her daughter, Lily, take their first summer trip to New Hampshire’s Squam Lake, is a restful, scenic vacation. But she will soon learn that the world has another offering. Within minutes of their arrival that first summer, they meet a man named Aidan Heron. His is a gift that will teach them both, with an easy humor and a nearly fearless penchant for adventure, that life has more to offer than they'd ever understood. Shaped by tragedy in her youth, Hannah has learned to live a timid, closed life. And without realizing it, she has taught her daughter to do the same. But Aidan, a man who has experienced his own tragedy and responded very differently, will show them both a new way. Through ten years of shared summer vacations, Hannah will experience enthrallment, love and heartache. She will be challenged and will learn to challenge herself. And in the course of meeting these challenges, she will learn how to truly live.

* * *

After what seemed like it would prove a never-ending battle to whip my novel into shape, I'm finally happy with the manuscript. As challenging as the editing process turned out to be, and as anxious as I was to get to publication, it was truly satisfying to see the story come together a little more with each iteration.

Formatting for Kindle proved more challenging than I would like, but in the end I think it turned out well. I'm hoping the experience will teach me better for next time.

Formatting for The Nook proved much simpler, thanks to its easy willingness to accept a Word Doc as input (while I had to export to html and do meaningful cleanup of that source for the Kindle).

In the next few days, I'll post about the process of editing, packaging and formatting for the two e-book systems.

I'm sorry it’s taken me a while to reply. I'm a little over two thirds through your book and I have to say I like it quite a lot. I've actually been quite surprised because it's not my cup of tea. When I'm not reading technical books or some sort of philosophy, (The last book I read before yours was Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead) I tend to read exclusively science fiction and fantasy novels. I enjoy the complete release from reality that those types of books offer, and I was not really looking forward to reading your book knowing that it was the type I usually disdain.

Having said that, I began reading Learning to Swim thinking, "This will be interesting, I know the author well, I've worked with him for years, this will be a neat little journey through his head."

And indeed it began that way. Each sentence, each character description, the entire early plot development brought forth a voice in my head taunting, "A-ha, yes this is Trevor."

But as I read further that feeling disappeared. I completely forgot that it was written by you. I empathized with your characters, even Richard. I was drawn into their world and I cared about the things they cared about. I was concerned for them. And I completely experienced that visceral feeling you were going for - the sense of loss and the fear of reoccurrence. Not reoccurrence really - but new loss. New pain. That feeling of, "Here we go, the world is going to fuck me again, damn it." You extrude that emotion expertly.

Now here's the big compliment: When I hit those parts of your story, I wonder what it would be like to meet the author. Just like when I read Stephen King I wonder what it would be like to meet Stephen King. I wonder what it would be like to meet Terry Pratchett, I wonder what It would be like to meet Ayn Rand. I wonder what it would be like to meet Terry Goodkind. I wonder what it would be like to meet Neal Stephenson. And as I read your book I wonder what it would be like to meet you.

You've written this book so well that I completely forget it's written by you. I'm just taken away into the lives of your characters, and when I suddenly recall that you're the author it hits me like a splash of water in my face.

Not ice water, warm water. Because I smile and think, "Good job, Trevor, this is good".

So even though you're sadly deficient on magic and warriors, and there's nothing about extra-solar exploration, and your plot is grounded completely in what is actually plausible and possible, I like it. It's a good story. I'm quite pleasantly surprised. When I finish, I'm going to download it to my wife's kindle and see what she thinks. She hates all my sci-fi and fantasy so you might actually gain an ecstatic fan from her.

Other than that, Life is good for me. I'm working for Glen Ackerman at inhouseIT as his programmer-extraordinaire. Julie Ramirez is my project manager and between the two of us we are making very interesting things happen. I'm actually on the verge of putting together my own team, of which I'll be lead, with Julie as project manager of course. I'm more than excited about it.

In personal life, I was recently diagnosed with Type II Diabetes, and have been spending the last few months of my life trying to reverse it, only because they tell me it's reversible. I bought a meter and on a good day I can get my fasting blood sugar down to 111, but on a bad day it's 178, and if I eat a donut it's 270, so I'm trying to get that all figured out.

Other than that I love my job, I love my wife, and life is sustainably contentive.